It seems for every few good words said about iRacing, there are many awful horror stories about the way members are treated by staff and administration. The more friends I'd make in the community, the more I'd hear, and it became genuinely upsetting to know that a great platform for competitive online racing was tarnished by incompetent moderators and a definite agenda in the upper ranks.
I was hoping never to experience this "side" of iRacing as my experience with it has been mostly positive until a few months ago when the game switched primarily to a NASCAR sim, but only recently did I finally have a less than stellar run-in with the Admins.
I am known for running more "alternative" custom paint schemes on iRacing, as I would rather run a bright pink car than a real-world scheme to associate myself as a fan of a certain driver. HOWEVER, before I began my foray into painting, I contacted the head of the custom schemes department and asked for the exact guidelines as to what is allowed on custom schemes. He assured me that almost anything goes aside from blatantly racist or homophobic cars, and that iRacing can't ban you for a custom paint scheme because everyone has different standards when it comes to offensive content.
I always stay well within the guidelines.
So, for the new Nascar iRacing Series, I worked out a deal with an Xbox Live buddy to have her online persona advertised on my Chevy SS. I put over 2000 miles on the car over the course of two weeks, running in front of high ranking drivers and staff members. Not once, was anything said about my paint scheme even being remotely "offensive", because it was nothing more than a Leopard Print car with links to the social media accounts of my Xbox Live buddy.
I ended up having a successful first race weekend in the Nascar iRacing series, posting two top fives, leading almost half of one race, and actually WINNING another race against none other than Ray Alfalla and several other DWC drivers, although a couple times I was warned by a good friend "don't race him too hard." I laughed; this isn't real Nascar, it's a video game.
On Monday, my iRacing account had been suspended for 60 days, for violation of the "custom paint scheme" policy. iRacing lets you appeal this sort of thing, so here were the main points I made.
- It's a legit advertisement and no way is any part of the scheme intended to "harrass" other members or be a display of senseless vulgarity
- I put over 2000 miles on the car, and was not informed there was even an issue until EIGHT MINUTES AFTER my account was deactivated, despite competing against the same users for over two weeks
- A facebook post by a prolific iRacing member clearly shows users ganging up to protest me despite not actually being offended by the car, which I provided evidence of
- Other users, including high ranked and high profile users, have run much more "vulgar" schemes with zero repercussions, some of which are still in use over a year later
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that there was no issue with any of my cars
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that iRacing can't ban you for a custom paint scheme because each user has different standards when it comes to offensive content
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that if a user is so gravely offended by a custom paint scheme, there is a user-friendly block button to avoid seeing any of that user's schemes
- Any custom scheme featuring logos the user does not own the rights to (example: any replica scheme) is in violation of the custom scheme policy and that user can be subjected to a ban
I was given a one sentence response:
Our policy regarding custom paints is pretty clear and other peoples alleged violations doesn't justify yours or relieve you of being held accountable for your personal actions.
After talking with several iRacing friends over facebook, they began to inform me of the "other side" of iRacing, one hindered by politics, agendas, and cliques. One very high ranked member in particular stated over and over again that "black stripe" drivers often band together and protest anyone who is seen as a legitimate threat to their "exclusive club." Another mentioned a situation where an entire group of road racers were threatened with lifetime bans for a comment one user made during a live broadcast that wasn't even derogatory (think Denny Hamlin).Another high profile user was suspended for a week for failing to merge properly when coming out of the pits during a practice session. A relatively unknown user was given a two week suspension when his wheel mount snapped and he uncontrollably spun into another car, even after providing iRacing said pictures of his broken wheel. Some users are given full account refunds for simply complaining to the right person, while others are told that iRacing "doesn't give out refunds." One members parents PAID the admins not to have their child banned or suspended. This is after maybe half a day of talking to a few different people over Xbox and Teamspeak.
This is on top of the insanely misguided development cycle that focuses primarily on NASCAR content, scheduling car and track combinations that would never occur in the real world (IndyCars at Talladega), releasing new content while ignoring basic flaws in the tire model that make several cars completely unstable and horrible to drive (even compared to amateur rFactor mods), providing default setups created by drivers who are 4-5 seconds off pace, making aero adjustments to primarily suit 3 out of the 31 cars in the game, and implementing touch screen driving controls instead of sorting out netcode problems that have ruined many races for the better part of a year.
The Lotus 49 isn't coming out for a long while, either. You're better off re-installing Grand Prix Legends.
I'm posting this here because iRacing promotes themselves as a "world-class racing simulation" and costs several times more than what most people are willing to payto drive pretend cars on the computer.The average consumer deserves to know the downfalls before dropping $100 per year, plus $200 on average to race in a few series every week.
We're talking about a company that, seven years ago, tried to sue its own fanbase because they were worried that free community mods would be of a better quality than the retail game and would take away potential sales.
I was hoping never to experience this "side" of iRacing as my experience with it has been mostly positive until a few months ago when the game switched primarily to a NASCAR sim, but only recently did I finally have a less than stellar run-in with the Admins.
I am known for running more "alternative" custom paint schemes on iRacing, as I would rather run a bright pink car than a real-world scheme to associate myself as a fan of a certain driver. HOWEVER, before I began my foray into painting, I contacted the head of the custom schemes department and asked for the exact guidelines as to what is allowed on custom schemes. He assured me that almost anything goes aside from blatantly racist or homophobic cars, and that iRacing can't ban you for a custom paint scheme because everyone has different standards when it comes to offensive content.
I always stay well within the guidelines.
So, for the new Nascar iRacing Series, I worked out a deal with an Xbox Live buddy to have her online persona advertised on my Chevy SS. I put over 2000 miles on the car over the course of two weeks, running in front of high ranking drivers and staff members. Not once, was anything said about my paint scheme even being remotely "offensive", because it was nothing more than a Leopard Print car with links to the social media accounts of my Xbox Live buddy.
I ended up having a successful first race weekend in the Nascar iRacing series, posting two top fives, leading almost half of one race, and actually WINNING another race against none other than Ray Alfalla and several other DWC drivers, although a couple times I was warned by a good friend "don't race him too hard." I laughed; this isn't real Nascar, it's a video game.
On Monday, my iRacing account had been suspended for 60 days, for violation of the "custom paint scheme" policy. iRacing lets you appeal this sort of thing, so here were the main points I made.
- It's a legit advertisement and no way is any part of the scheme intended to "harrass" other members or be a display of senseless vulgarity
- I put over 2000 miles on the car, and was not informed there was even an issue until EIGHT MINUTES AFTER my account was deactivated, despite competing against the same users for over two weeks
- A facebook post by a prolific iRacing member clearly shows users ganging up to protest me despite not actually being offended by the car, which I provided evidence of
- Other users, including high ranked and high profile users, have run much more "vulgar" schemes with zero repercussions, some of which are still in use over a year later
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that there was no issue with any of my cars
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that iRacing can't ban you for a custom paint scheme because each user has different standards when it comes to offensive content
- I was told by the head of the custom paint scheme department that if a user is so gravely offended by a custom paint scheme, there is a user-friendly block button to avoid seeing any of that user's schemes
- Any custom scheme featuring logos the user does not own the rights to (example: any replica scheme) is in violation of the custom scheme policy and that user can be subjected to a ban
I was given a one sentence response:
Our policy regarding custom paints is pretty clear and other peoples alleged violations doesn't justify yours or relieve you of being held accountable for your personal actions.
After talking with several iRacing friends over facebook, they began to inform me of the "other side" of iRacing, one hindered by politics, agendas, and cliques. One very high ranked member in particular stated over and over again that "black stripe" drivers often band together and protest anyone who is seen as a legitimate threat to their "exclusive club." Another mentioned a situation where an entire group of road racers were threatened with lifetime bans for a comment one user made during a live broadcast that wasn't even derogatory (think Denny Hamlin).Another high profile user was suspended for a week for failing to merge properly when coming out of the pits during a practice session. A relatively unknown user was given a two week suspension when his wheel mount snapped and he uncontrollably spun into another car, even after providing iRacing said pictures of his broken wheel. Some users are given full account refunds for simply complaining to the right person, while others are told that iRacing "doesn't give out refunds." One members parents PAID the admins not to have their child banned or suspended. This is after maybe half a day of talking to a few different people over Xbox and Teamspeak.
This is on top of the insanely misguided development cycle that focuses primarily on NASCAR content, scheduling car and track combinations that would never occur in the real world (IndyCars at Talladega), releasing new content while ignoring basic flaws in the tire model that make several cars completely unstable and horrible to drive (even compared to amateur rFactor mods), providing default setups created by drivers who are 4-5 seconds off pace, making aero adjustments to primarily suit 3 out of the 31 cars in the game, and implementing touch screen driving controls instead of sorting out netcode problems that have ruined many races for the better part of a year.
The Lotus 49 isn't coming out for a long while, either. You're better off re-installing Grand Prix Legends.
I'm posting this here because iRacing promotes themselves as a "world-class racing simulation" and costs several times more than what most people are willing to payto drive pretend cars on the computer.The average consumer deserves to know the downfalls before dropping $100 per year, plus $200 on average to race in a few series every week.
We're talking about a company that, seven years ago, tried to sue its own fanbase because they were worried that free community mods would be of a better quality than the retail game and would take away potential sales.
